MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry

It’s been touted for months, but now it finally looks as though Sony and Microsoft are preparing a charm offensive to snare the lucrative customer base of established TV and movie-on-demand specialists. After announcing a combined TV tuner and personal video recorder for PS3 in Leipzig last week, Sony has …

Sega’s North American boss Simon Jeffery has forecast that Wii’s low development costs will mean that third-party output on the system will be noticeably more original than that on Xbox 360 and PS3 for the next two years. After Sega’s Mario and Sonic At The Olympic Games took the award …

The administrator of troubled retail and distribution firm ChoicesUK has already closed 28 of the company’s stores – resulting in 240 redundancies. MCV can reveal that 35 of the job losses were made at the firm’s Peterborough head office, following an operational review of the retailer by administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers. Joint …

Microsoft has announced that much-anticipated RPG Mass Effect will be released on Xbox 360 on November 20th in America – and will be out in Europe three days later. The title has been developed by Bioware, who were responsible for both Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Jade …

A new Woolworths TV campaign will begin on Thursday September 6th, featuring Darth Vader, Kelly Osbourne and Rolf Harris alongside the retailer’s mascots Wooly and Worth. The new adverts are in support of the revamped the budget Worthit! brand which has been bolstered by a further 300 products, reported The …

Not against the social ruin of gun-toting UK youth, however. (A responsible example laid down by that confrontational rhetoric, though Dave.) No, the time has come for us all to ‘fight back’ against an enemy much more directly damaging to our business. Namely the ill-informed desperation of top Ministers to …

Rockstar’s Manhunt 2 may soon enjoy a bone fide release in Europe – albeit only in Holland. The Dutch Ministry has declined to intervene in the title’s path to retail in the territory – as it would conflict with current Netherlands law. According to the Associated Press, it will still …

DSGi has posted a six per cent increase in overall revenues for the 16 weeks leading to August 18th. According to the firm, the rise in takings is largely down to flat panel sales. The group said 11 per cent group sales were good, yet it is too early to …

Level 5, the developer behind Japan’s favourite RPG series, Dragon Quest, and recent PS2 RPG Rogue Galaxy, has announced that it is working on a football-based RPG for DS called Inazume Eleven. IGN reports that the game follows the tales of a school football team as it battles its way …

US developer Medaverse has revealed via its forums that it is working on a title, named Gravitronix, for Nintendo’s upcoming Wii Software Channel, according to Eurogamer . Gravitronix allows up to four players to enter battle in a single-screen arena, firing all manner of assorted projectiles and making full use …